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Mission Possible: Door one or door two which door is for you

Very recently I was face-to-face with one of the toughest decisions I have had to make in many years: (1) to continue my mission to support Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) through Coyote Howling Shop for a Cause or (2) to accept a contract at TX A&M

Mission Possible: Door one or door two which door is for you

Recently I was face-to-face with one of the toughest decisions I have had to make in many years: (1) to continue my mission to support Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) through Coyote Howling Shop for a Cause or (2) to accept a contract at Texas A & M International University as a professor of education that included the opportunity to develop FMSC service-learning.

I prayed what I thought was the logical prayer, “God what do you want me to do? Stay here and continue to love my church family, FMSC core team and location; or go where I have never been and start over again to develop FMSC and potentially provide meals for even more children?” No surprise, God did not answer that question. I had made it into a “door one or door two” question and allowed my anxiety to mount.

“Very rarely in the Bible does God come to someone and say, "Stay." Almost never does God interrupt someone and ask them to remain in comfort, safety and familiarity — in their beloved village of Ruidoso, for instance. “He opens a door and calls them to come through it” (Ortberg, p. 13). In Genesis 12:1 “God told Abram, “Leave your country, your family and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.” (The Message; Ortberg, pp. 13, 31)

An open door isn’t just a choice between pancakes or waffles for breakfast, wearing boots or sandals or even just any opportunity; the open door I am talking about is the one Pastor John Ortberg has written about: "an opportunity provided by God, to act with God and for God” (Ortberg, p. 14).

This is why God can use even what looks like the wrong door if I/we go through it with the right heart — the heart focused on serving and loving Him. For it is not the greatest number of doors, or achievements, or title, or the most beautiful locations or biggest churches... that God asks of us, rather that we strive to become a person in His image no matter which door we walk through or slam shut. (see John 15:5 and Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” KJV.)

Ortberg, in "All the places to go, how will you know?" (2015), proposes doors have an opportunity to make our lives count for eternity. Ortberg contends that open doors in the Bible never exist just for the sake of the people offered them— they involve opportunity to bless someone else (p. 9).

Ex: Paul to the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 16:9) “a wide door for effective work” had opened.

An open door from God is a beginning, most often without a guaranteed ending or a sneak-peek of the finish. “If the door is to be entered, it can be entered only by faith” (Ortberg, pp. 26-27). In the Bible, when God calls someone to do something, the person seldom says, “Yep, I’m ready, Lord!” Instead, most beg off: “Too inarticulate, too weak, too old, too young, too sinful, too dangerous, too rich, too poor, too much baggage, ...” [see Ortberg, pp. 27-28, 33], and, in my case, too in love with my life in Ruidoso, Lord! Idolatry of place! In Abram’s case, Ur was everything Canaan was not (sort of like Ruidoso compared to Laredo)!

So, the open door is often more about where my insides are going than where my outsides are going. For the upcoming academic semesters, my outsides are going to Texas A&M to again focus my scholarship on teaching cross-cultural competence and service-learning, particularly in wiping out child stunting and starvation. My insides, my heart especially, will be here in Ruidoso at Coyote Howling and with my Core Team and community committed to our mission of providing MannaPack meals for children. It is the focus, not the location, that matters as we strive to do His will.

Tonya Huber, PhD, is founder and owner of Coyote Howling: Shop for a Cause